Abstract
The large behavioral repertoire that spans the embryonic and postembryonic stages of development make chicks an ideal system for identifying patterns of muscle activity that are common to different behaviors and those that are behavior-specific. The main goal of this work was to identify the similar and dissimilar aspects of the recruitment patterns and the regulation of muscle activity during three distinct postembryonic behaviors: walking, swimming and airstepping. We identified two synergies that were common to each of these behaviors. The synergies were not disrupted by the absence of FT1 activity in airstepping. Within each synergy the recruitment time, recruitment order and duration of activity were not rigid, but varied according to the context-specific resistance that the leg encountered. Unlike the other muscles, FT2 activity was not recruited as part of the same synergy in each behavior. When weight-bearing contact with the substrate did not occur, as in swimming and airstepping, as well as in walking in chicks with deafferented legs, FT2 activity was not recruited as part of either synergy, but was recruited during the time between them. Although not identical, embryonic motility and hatching motor pattern both show the two synergies described for the postembryonic behaviors. Like the latter behaviors, the synergies tolerated the absence of activity from specific muscles. Thus, we suggest that the CNS produces different behaviors using many of the same muscles by organizing the patterned activity around two common synergies while permitting the different muscles that participate in a synergy to be modified in tandem or on an individual basis. Furthermore, the common synergies are established early during prenatal development in chicks.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- aIF :
-
anterior iliofibularius
- CF :
-
caudilioflexorius
- CNS :
-
central nervous system
- EMG :
-
electromyogram
- FT :
-
femorotibialis
- GL :
-
gastrocnemius lateralis
- P1 :
-
protraction 1
- P2 :
-
protraction 2
- pIF :
-
posterior iliofibularis
- R :
-
retraction
- SA :
-
sartorius
- TA :
-
tibialis anterior
- pIF :
-
posterior iliofibularis
- ms :
-
millisecond
References
Abraham GV, Loeb G (1985) The distal hindlimb musculature of the cat. Patterns of normal use. Exp Brain Res 58: 580–593
American Veterinary Medicine Association (1993) Report of the AVMA panel on euthanasia. J Am Vet Med Assoc 202: 229–249
Ayers JL, Clarac F (1978) Neuromuscular strategies underlying different behavioral acts in a multifunctional crustacean leg joint. J Comp Physiol 128: 81–94
Ayers JL, Davis WJ (1977) Neural control of locomotion in the lobster, Homarus americanus. J Comp Physiol 115: 1–27
Bässler U (1989) Muscle and reflex partitioning in insects? Behav Brain Sci 12: 646–647
Bässler U, Wegner U (1983) Motor output of the denervated thoracic ventral nerve cord in the stick insect Carausius morosus. J Exp Biol 105: 127–145
Bekoff A (1976) Ontogeny of leg motor output in the chick embryo: a neural analysis. Brain Res 106: 271–291
Bekoff A (1986) Ontogeny of chicken motor behaviors: evidence for multi-use limb pattern generating circuitry. In: Grillner S, Stein PSG, Stuart DG, Forssberg H, Herman RM (eds) Neurobiology of vertebrate locomotion. Macmillian, Hampshire, England, pp 433–453
Bekoff A (1988) Embryonic motor output and movement patterns: relationships to postnatal behavior. In: Smotherman WP, Robinson SR (eds) Behavior of the fetus. Telford Press New Jersey, pp 191–206
Bekoff A, Kauer JA (1982) Neural control of hatching: role of neck position in turning on hatching leg movements in post-hatching chicks. J Comp Physiol 145: 497–504
Bekoff A, Kauer JA (1984) Neural control of hatching: fate of the pattern generator for the leg movements of hatching in post-hatching chicks. J Neurosci 4: 2659–2666
Bekoff A, Sabichi AL (1987) Sensory control of the initiation of hatching in chicks: effects of local anesthetic injected into the neck. Dev Psychobiol 20: 489–495
Bekoff A, Nusbaum MP, Sabichi AL, Clifford M (1987) Neural control of limb coordination: comparison of hatching and walking motor output patterns in normal and deafferented chicks. J Neurosci 7: 2320–2330
Bradley NS, Bekoff A (1990) Development of coordinated movement in chicks: I. Temporal analysis of hindlimb muscle synergies at embryonic days 9 and 10. Dev Psychobiol 23: 763–782
Cazalets J-R, Nagy F, Moulins M (1990) Suppressive control of the crustacean pyloric network by a pair of identified interneurons. I. Modulation of the motor pattern. J Neurosci 10: 448–457
Cracraft J (1971) The functional morphology of the hind limb of the domestic pigeon, Columba livia. Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 144: 171–268
Dickinson P, Mecsas C, Marder E (1990) Neuropeptide fusion of two motor-pattern generator circuits. Nature 344: 155–258
Gatesy SM (1989) Archosaur neuromuscular and locomotor evolution. PhD thesis. Harvard University
Getting PA (1989) Emerging principles governing the operation of neural networks. Annu Rev Neurosci 12: 185–204
Getting PA, Dekin MS (1985) A model system for integration within rhythmic motor systems. In: Selverston AI (ed) Model neural networks and behavior. Plenum, New York, pp 3–20
Giuliani CA, Smith JL (1985) Development and characteristics of airstepping in chronic spinal cats. J Neurosci 5: 1276–1282
Grillner S (1981) Control of locomotion in bipeds, tetrapods and fish. In: Brooks VB (ed) The Handbook of Physiology, section 1. The Nervous System, vol. II. Am Physiol Soc, Bethesda, Maryland, pp 1179–1236
Grillner S, Wallén P (1985) Central pattern generators for locomotion, with special reference to vertebrates. Annu Rev Neurosci 8: 233–261
Gruner JA, Altman J (1980) Swimming in the rat: analysis of locomotor performance in comparison to stepping. Exp Brain Res 40: 374–382
Harris-Warrick RM, Johnson BR (1989) Motor pattern networks: flexible foundations for rhythmical pattern production. In:Crew TJ, Kelley DB (eds) Perspectives in neural systems and behavior. A.R. Liss, New York, pp 55–71
Harris-Warrick RM, Marder E (1991) Modulation of neural networks for behavior. Annu Rev Neurosci 14: 39–57
Hooper SL, Moulins M (1989) Switching of a neuron from one network to another by sensory-induced changes in membrane properties. Science 244: 1587–1589
Hoy MG, Zernicke RF (1986) The role of intersegmental dynamics during rapid limb oscillations. J Biomech 19: 867–877
Hoy MG, Zernicke RF, Smith JL (1985) Contrasting roles of inertial and muscle moments at the knee and ankle during paw-shake response. J Neurophysiol 54: 1282–1294
Jacobson RD, Hollyday MA (1982) A behavioral and electromyographic study of walking in the chick. J Neurophysiol 48: 238–256
Johnston RM, Bekoff AC (1992) Constrained and flexible features of rhythmical hindlimb movements in chicks: kinematic profiles of walking, swimming and airstepping. J Exp Biol 171: 43–66
Keller C, Heiligenberg W (1989) From distributed sensory processing to discrete motor representations in the diencephalon of the electric fish, Eigenmannia. J Comp Physiol A 164: 565–576
Koshland GF, Smith JL (1989) Mutable and immutable features of paw-shake responses after hindlimb deafferentation in the cat. J Neurophysiol 62: 162–173
Landmesser LT, O'Donavan MJ (1984) Activation patterns of embryonic chick hindlimb muscles recorded in ovo and in an isolated spinal cord preparation. J Physiol 347: 189–204
Lennard PR, Stein PSG (1977) Swimming movements elicited by electrical stimulation of turtle spinal cord. I. Low-spinal and intact preparations. J Neurophysiol 40: 768–778
Levine RB, Weeks JC (1989) Reorganization of neural circuits and behavior during insect metamorphosis. In: Crew TJ, Kelley DB (eds) Perspectives in neural systems and behavior. A.R. Liss, New York, pp 195–228
Machlis L, Dodd PWD, Fentress JC (1985) The pooling fallacy: problems arising when individuals contribute more than one observation to a data set. Z Tierpsychol 68: 201–214
MacPherson JM (1991) How flexible are muscle synergies? In: Humphrey DR, Freund HJ (eds) Motor control: Concepts and issues. John Wiley, New York, pp 33–47
Meyrand P, Simmers J (1992) An unstable brain for stable behaviors. In: Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Neuroethology. McGill University Press, Montreal, p 64
Meyrand P, Simmers J, Moulins M (1991) Construction of a pattern-generating circuit with neurons of different networks. Nature 351: 60–63
Mortin LI, Stein PSG (1989) Spinal cord segments containing key elements of the central pattern generators for three forms of scratch reflex in the turtle. J Neurosci 9: 2285–2296
Pflüger H-J, Burrows M (1978) Locust use the same basic motor patterns in swimming as in jumping and in kicking. J Exp Biol 75: 81–93
Pratt CA, Loeb GE (1991) Functional complex muscles of the cat hindlimb. I. Patterns of activation across sartorius. Exp Brain Res 85: 243–256
Raikow RJ (1985) Locomotor system. In: King AS, McLelland J (eds) Form and function in birds, vol. 3. Academic Press, London, pp 57–147
Ramirez JM, Pearson KG (1988) Generation of motor patterns of walking and flight in motoneurons supplying bifunctional muscles in the locust. J Neurobiol 19: 257–282
Settles HE, Hanken J, Bekoff A (1987) Functional compartments of the chick iliofibularis (biceps) muscle. Am Zool 27: 23A
Smith JL (1986) Hindlimb locomotion in the spinal cat: synergistic patterns, limb dynamics and novel blends. In: Grillner S, Stein PSG, Stuart DG, Forssberg H, Herman RM (eds) Neurobiology of vertebrate locomotion. Macmillian, Hampshire, England, pp 185–199
Smith JL, Hoy MG, Koshland GF, Phillips DM, Zernicke RF (1985) Intralimb coordination of the paw-shake response: a novel mixed synergy. J Neurophysiol 54: 1271–1281
Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1995) Biometry, 3rd edn. W.H. Freeman, New York
Stein PSG, Currie SN (1989) Motor program selection in the vertebrate spinal cord: three forms of the scratch reflex in the turtle. In: Erber J, Menzel R, Pflüger H-J, Todt D (eds) Neural mechanisms of behavior: Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Neuroethology. Georg Thieme, Stuttgart, pp 178–179
Stein PSG, Mortin LI, Robertson GA (1986) The forms of a task and their blends. In: Grillner S, Stein PSG, Stuart DG, Forssberg H, Herman RM (eds) Neurobiology of vertebrate locomotion. Macmillian, Hampshire, England, pp 185–19
Systat (1992) SYSTAT: Statistics, Version 5.2 Edition. SYSTAT, Evanston, IL
van Ingen Schenau GJ (1987) The unique action of bi-articular muscles in complex movements. J Anat 155: 1–5
van Ingen Schenau GJ (1990) On the action of biarticular muscles, a review. Neth J Zool 40: 521–540
van Ingen Schenau GJ, Boots PJM, de Groot G, Snackers RJ, van Woensel WWLM (1992) The constrained control of force and position in multi-joint movements. Neuroscience 46: 197–207
Weeks JC, Levine RB (1990) Postembryonic neuronal plasticity and its hormonal control during insect metamorphosis. Annu Rev Neurosci 13: 183–194
Weimann JM, Meyrand P, Marder E (1991) Neurons that form multiple pattern generators: identification and multiple activity patterns of gastric/pyloric neurons in the crab stomatogastric system. J Neurophysiol 65: 111–122
Williams TL (1981) Experimental analysis of the gait and frequency of locomotion in the tortoise, with a simple mathematical description. J Physiol (Lond) 310: 307–320
Young JZ (1981) The life of vertebrates. Third edition. Oxford New York, pp 327–334
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Johnston, R.M., Bekoff, A. Patterns of muscle activity during different behaviors in chicks: implications for neural control. J Comp Physiol A 179, 169–184 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222784
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222784